Cultural Posturing: Difference between revisions

Expect the alien who has the opinion that [[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters]] to trot out a similar argument. Compare [[Can't Argue with Elves]] - that's when humans for some reason don't mind insults at all. [[Screw You, Elves]] happens when they ''do'' mind. If this happens between nations, it's [[Misplaced Nationalism]]. These four references to other tropes might be actually broader examples of this trope... what other culture do humans (as in ''you'', reader) know but their own human culture? How very meta.

=== Comic Books ===

=== Film ===

* Subverted in the ''[[My Favorite Martian (film)|My Favorite Martian]]'' movie, where Martin starts complaining about his spaceship's "electron accelerator" getting fried, and then tells Tim "I'd tell you what it is, but you think E = MC^2". {{spoiler|It then turns out that an "electron accelerator" is just flowery [[Techno Babble]] for an alternator taken from Tim's sedan.}}

=== Literature ===

* In the ''[[Perry Rhodan]]'' universe, this is very much the Arkonides' [[Planet of Hats|'Hat']] -- traditionally—traditionally, the actual inhabitants of Arkon look down on their neighbors, all of them look down on other species, and so on. Regarding Earth, the traditionalists' position is that they had starflight while Terrans were still living in caves and digging up grubs and 'Larsaf III' is just a lost colony anyway (Atlantis ''was'' in fact one of their settlements thousands of years ago, although the natives were already in place). They don't let the historical fact that {{spoiler|Arkon itself turns out to be merely a colony ''of'' a colony dating back to Earth's first interstellar empire that was devastated by war some 50,000 years ago}} get in their way in the slightest, of course.

** [[The Narrator]] does it in ''[[Discworld/Mort|Mort]]'', although his definition of cultural superiority makes it clear it's a parody: Klatch "had 15 words for assassination before the rest of the world had caught on to the idea of hitting each other with rocks".

** An understated example in ''[[Discworld/Jingo|Jingo]]'':

** In ''[[Discworld/Pyramids|Pyramids]]'', in the country of Djelibeybi (heavily based on Ancient Egypt), the High Priest reminds the king that "your family was on its third dynasty before our neighbours had worked out, sire, how babies are made."

* In one of the ''[[Star Trek: Millennium]]'' novels, a Bajoran mentions how her people were architects and artists when "Cardassians were still swimming through swamps catching fish in their mouths".

=== Live-Action TV ===

* ''[[Star Trek]]'' had that the Bajorans had a beautiful and advanced civilization and culture--notculture—not warp-drive advanced, but still, advanced--backadvanced—back when human beings were still learning to walk upright. Of course, that was before the Cardassians took over.

** The Founders, ye gods ''The Founders'' take this, combine it with [[Fantastic Racism]] and ramp it [[Up to Eleven]], although the only people who actually seem to buy it are the ones who are genetically programmed to do so. In fact, even some of the things that they posture ''about'' are [[Informed Attribute|Informed Attributes]]s at best, their much vaunted curiosity really doesn't ring true, the only things they seem to bother to learn about other races is how to infiltrate them

=== Video Games ===

=== Web Comics ===

* Thief from ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]'' loves pointing out the supposed superiority of Elf civilization and culture. In [httphttps://wwwweb.archive.org/web/20090222012538/http://nuklearpower.com/daily.php?date=060404 one comic] he starts in on how ancient Elf civilization is, only to be asked by Red Mage why, with a 9000 year head start, they are only as technologically advanced as humans.

=== Web Original ===

=== Western Animation ===

=== Comic Books ===

=== ComicsFilm ===

=== Literature ===

=== Live-Action TV ===

* In ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Star Trek the Original Series]]'', Pavel Chekov claims that Scotch whisky was <s>invented</s> inwented by a little old lady from Leningrad, the Garden of Eden was just outside Moscow, and "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me" is an old Russian proverb. While such clownish national pride would be considered a little insulting in modern times, the show was written at the height of the [[Cold War]], and was thus a [[Fair for Its Day|rather big step up]] in the depiction of the Russian character.

=== RadioNewspaper Comics ===

=== Theatre ===

=== [[Video Games]] ===

=== [[Web Original]] ===

=== Western Animation ===

=== Real Life ===

* During a debate in the British Parliament, a young [[Benjamin Disraeli]] was heckled with the cry of "Jew! Jew!". He replied "My people were kings and princes, when yours were galley slaves." (For the record, he's giving a bit of a [[Rose-Tinted Narrative]] --— the Kingdom of Judah also eventually became a Roman dominion.) In an open letter to the ''Times'' of London he remarked "Yes, I am a Jew and when the ancestors of the right honorable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon." <ref>[[History Marches On|Unless he was asserting that the heckler was descended from Byzantine criminals, no, they weren't galley slaves.]]</ref> Ancient Greeks and Romans never used slaves as rowers; if they were so short-handed they had to crew their ships with slaves, they freed them first. Rowers, after all, were a part of the warrior caste—imaginecaste; imagine asking 19th century Hindus to fight alongside Untouchables, if you want to know how Romans felt about using slave-crews.</ref>

* [[World War TwoII]] is a favorite source of [[Cultural Posturing]] among several different countries, usually among those from the Allies, and ''especially'' among the "Big Three" (United States, United Kingdom, Russia/Soviet Union). Many people from these countries don't want to share the credit for winning the war, even though it took all three Allies to beat the Axis. Russia and the United States would have been in big trouble if Britain hadn't held the line. Neither Britain nor Russia could have carried on without American logistical support and command of the Pacific front.. Without the Russians holding most of the Nazi attention on the Eastern Front, Britain and the United States would have had a ''much'' bloodier fight on their hands.

*** In an episode of ''[[Steptoe and Son]]'' where 'arold and his father into a fight on a plane; when an American tries to stop it/join in, dad pushes him away with a contemptuous "Late again!"

* It's somewhat rare for the American Revolution to be brought up as an instance of American [[Cultural Posturing]]. Whenever it is, it's almost '''always''' followed up by a [[Deadpan Snarker]] reminding everyone that the Americans had help from the French. Sometimes this even gets turned into French Cultural Posturing instead, suggesting that France carried all the burden of freeing the Thirteen Colonies, even though the French needed the Americans to carry some of their own objectives. Lafayette ''was'' leading an army of Americans, after all--andall—and when the English tried to pass over Washington and surrender to Rochambeau, he called them on it.

* Canadians, on the other hand, are always{{verify}} quick to brag about the [[The War of 1812]], treating it as a [[Curb Stomp Battle]] in Canada's favor--asfavor—as exemplified in claims that Canadian forces "burned down the U.S. capital." [[Popular History|They forget one thing]]: The action was in retaliation for American forces burning down ''Upper Canada's'' capital during that same war. Not to mention that the forces involved in the burning of Washington, D.C. were about as Canadian as those who won the Battle of Waterloo <ref> They were British troops, recently brought over from Europe. The Canadians, for their part, were all still up in what would ''later'' become Canada. Of course, that com[plaint makes as much sense as any complaint that it can't have been an American victory unless troops from all of the American states were involved -- which is just as nonsensical as the claim here that troops from one part of Britain aren't allowed to defend another part of Britain.</ref>

* Modern-day Arabs often pull this on Westerners, claiming that, historically, Muslim nations gave more rights to women and the condemned than western countries, and that there were long stretches of history where Muslim countries had more advanced empires and science than western nations. There's definitely an aspect of bit of wishful thinking to it, however, since one of the major reasons Islamic countries had these things was that the religion spread among the extremely well-developed societies which and experienced numerous advanced civilizations and cultures.<ref>It is true, however, that Islam was remarkably [[Fair for Its Day]] compared to Arab paganism regarding women's rights, and that contact with these advanced civilizations eventually wore down the original vision, leaving Muslim women in a worse situation than they were under the earliest Islamic state.</ref> It's also a case of cherry-picking examples they liked and comparing them to an [[The Theme Park Version|extremely]] [[Hollywood History|simplistic]] if not outright [[Flanderization|Flanderized]] view of "Christendom." One of the Arab princes brings this up in ''[[Lawrence of Arabia]]''. Lawrence immediately uses it for his own ends to incite an Arab revolt against the Ottomans, saying in effect, "You had all those great things once, and now it's time for you to be great once more."

** Westerners retort by saying the Arabs took many of those things from other civilizations, pottery from the Chinese, archetecturearchitecture from the Assyrians, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRav7-5QI0E chemistry from the Egyptians], etc. Hence they can no longer progress because they can no longer simply just appropriate knowledge.

** For their part, [[Iran|Iranians]]ians pull this a lot on Arabs, citing the ancient Persian civilization (going back to Cyrus) compared to the relatively recent Arab one. Arabs get understandably annoyed.

[[Category:Cultural Posturing{{PAGENAME}}]]